UH will be in database surgery on Sunday

By adamg - 11/20/09 - 7:56 am

I'll be upgrading the software on Sunday (yes, dear regulars, finally), so if you can't connect to the site in the afternoon or parts of the site disappear, that's why - you know how delicate surgery is (and yes, I've learned my lesson: Back up the whole database before I do anything! Not that anything will go wrong, unless, of course, it does).

Tiny taste of the new look:

New banner

Comments

Is that a snail? I think you

By anon (not verified) - 11/20/09 - 8:09 am

Is that a snail?

I think you should keep the MBTA token.

-CP

Grasshopper on top of Faneuil Hall

By adamg - 11/20/09 - 8:25 am

The kidlet would be happy, too, if I kept the token. "It's BETTER!" she keeps telling me.

Will see what I can do (the new design has less height for a banner, and at the new size, it's hard to tell the thing is a token and not, say, a city seal). At the same time, I dunno, two years after the CharlieCard came in, isn't the token a bit played out?

nah...

By bandit - 11/20/09 - 8:56 am

the token just gives you old skool street cred!

Agreed

By Sock_Puppet - 11/20/09 - 10:15 am

Keep the token. If you don't know what it is from just a glimpse, then you're even more of a Johnny-come-lately than the rest of us. Being hostile to newcomers and outsiders is an integral part of Boston tradition. The only other suitable symbol would be a broken chair on a completely snow-free street.

Like The Grasshopper, But I'm Prejudiced

By Suldog - 11/20/09 - 8:59 am

An ancestor of mine, Shem Drowne, made it.

Suldog
http://jimsuldog.blogspot.com

Sounds like your kid has a

By ShadyMilkMan - 11/20/09 - 9:17 am

Sounds like your kid has a good eye, listen to her.

Twitter me this!

Like the grasshopper peeking around

By jchristian - 11/20/09 - 9:30 am

the corner like that. Maybe you can incorporate both.

--As an aside, was watching a Bob Ross-Joy of Painting show last night & he was painting trees, and talking about how he liked animals and he was going to paint in a squirrel & call him Peapod, Jr! Awesome.

Me too

By Lecil - 11/20/09 - 10:23 am

I'd vote for the tolken given the chance, but in the spirit of full disclosure I'm generally skeeved by bugs. I did recognize the grasshopper however, so it still works as a Boston icon.

yea not a cool look

By billings - 11/20/09 - 2:36 pm

it looks pretty lame.

comment from the IT peanut gallery

By Brett - 11/20/09 - 8:40 am

I'd recommend testing the upgrade, either on a copy of the database, or a different machine.

You could, for example, lock the database on the current site, make the copy, upgrade the copy, then switch over to using the copy. Presto, no significant downtime, if things get borked you're not screwed, and if things go well, the switch to the new site is painless.

If you put the new site off a different URL, you can give us time to play with it and try to break it.

Thanks. Yeah, I'm actually

By adamg - 11/20/09 - 8:58 am

Thanks. Yeah, I'm actually building/testing the new site on top of a copy of the database here (if you want to rummage around and make it break, with the caveat that the design and page layout is not finished), so basically I'll be following your plan. The one thing I'm expecting to take a bit of time is importing copies of the database instructions that build certain pages and page components (for example, the list of "recent comments" on the right). I've gone through a couple of test migrations so far and in general the upgrade goes fine, except for the module that handles those SQL queries - it just doesn't update them for some reason. Fortunately, it's not hard to replicate them, just tedious.

A speedier blog.

By the zak - 11/20/09 - 8:49 am

Please make it speedier, especially when loading the comment form...

Trying

By adamg - 11/20/09 - 9:07 am

One of the reasons this project took longer than I'd hoped was that the initial template set I'd chosen actually slowed the site down significantly. I could never figure out why (it wasn't the HTML or CSS that I could tell, but something in it would make pages take up to twice as long to display), but kept hammering at it because I really like it for page-design reasons (and I'd used it on other sites with no problems). Finally had to just give up and switch to another template set, which seems to work OK.

Is it currently taking you

By ShadyMilkMan - 11/20/09 - 9:16 am

Is it currently taking you too long to drive by spam the place at the moment?

Twitter me this!

the upgrade

By Anonymous - 11/20/09 - 8:55 am

won't cause us to lose tracker, will it?

Nope, that'll still be there

By adamg - 11/20/09 - 9:04 am

It's a core Drupal component (Here it is in the new software; I might work on the look of the table a bit, though).

If things go well, the site should work pretty much exactly as it does now, except, hopefully, a bit faster. The one new function: You'll be able to use OpenID to log in.

Longer term, I hope to add new stuff.

And as always

By Stevil - 11/20/09 - 9:10 am

Thank you from your loyal subjects in UHdom.

dig it.

By 02132 - 11/20/09 - 10:50 am

I like the grasshopper, but also echo the sentiments about the token. If you could find a place for both, all the better!

GL with the upgrade. Hope it all goes smoothly.

Token vs Hopper

By Kaz - 11/20/09 - 10:58 am

I say stay with the token, but I'm also aware that these days nobody on the web wants things to change so maybe I'm just jaded by past success.

Also, the biggest problem I have with the grasshopper is that with only his head showing it looks more like a snail and I wasn't sure why you put a snail in the logo exactly. Also, the T token may not be too recognizable these days since they've gone to paper cards and all, but I barely recalled there being a grasshopper on Faneuil Hall...and I don't really give it the "awe" of being a "Boston" symbol in the same way I do a transit token. It's just that nobody says "I can't leave my visit to Boston until I get a peek at that famous grasshopper!" or anything. I'd rather go with a bronze duckling or segment of the Constitution's bow/masts or something.

Yeah, what's with the snail?

By anon (not verified) - 11/20/09 - 12:14 pm

Or is it a cricket?
rhea